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FAXBACK PIKA INLINE MM 4 ANA VOICE

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FAXBACK PIKA INLINE MM 4 ANA VOICE is rated 4.29 out of 5 by 38.
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's simple to implement the SAFe Framework, but it's not easy to customize like some solutions What is our primary use case? We adopted the SAFe Framework, and more than 10 teams are using the process or workflow template from Azure DevOps for SAFe. Also, we're currently using DevOps for future planning and backlog management following the scrum approach on the team and coordination level. The company plans to extend this with Lean Portfolio Management. What needs improvement? The portfolio is one area where DevOps has room for improvement. Built-in reporting and visualization also could be better. We're using Power BI and Tableau to compile more complex reports and dashboards. Azure DevOps has some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities, but they're very simple. It's usually okay on the team level, but if you have to run a complex report, it's difficult and insufficient, so we use Power BI as an extension. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using DevOps for about three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? DevOps is very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? DevOps is scalable. We have about 65 users working with it, including the product manager, product owner, scrum master developer, tester, line managers, and architects. How are customer service and support? We haven't experienced any significant issues so far, but any issues we've had were fixed fast, so I would say I'm very satisfied with the support. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We were using Jira, but we switched to DevOps. It was a strategic decision to reduce the complexity of the toolchains. We wanted a Microsoft solution, so we chose Azure DevOps. How was the initial setup? Setting up Azure DevOps was straightforward. It's easy to use the default templates. Everything is under our control, so it's simple to implement new requirements. We did it ourselves in three days. Since we used the default templates, we didn't have to change the standard Azure DevOps services. Two people are responsible for deployment and maintenance: DevOps engineer and Release Train Engineer What other advice do I have? I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. DevOps isn't so easy. In general, the solution is straightforward and suits our purposes, but it's a little bit tricky to customize the workflow. It's simple to implement the SAFe Framework, but it's not easy to customize compared to Digital.ai Agility. There's a huge gap. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Provides great agile management of projects, is stable with good customer support What is our primary use case? We use it for planning, pipeline management and testing, as well as using it as a CI/CD tool. What is most valuable? I like the agile management of projects, running stand-ups and the like. The pipeline management feature is great. What needs improvement? We'd like to see an improvement in reporting across multiple projects. The same applies to improving program visibility so that project managers can get that pane of glass to assist with their work. It would be a big win for a lot of users as well as a good addition to the tool. For how long have I used the solution? We've been using this solution for close to four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is stable. There are still the occasional issues but on average it's very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is easily scalable because it runs on the cloud and everything is managed by Microsoft. We don't do anything in terms of increasing capacity so when more users are added the increased capacity is automatically managed. How are customer service and support? We haven't made a lot of calls to technical support but when we have their response has been good and quick. How was the initial setup? We have a DevOps engineer who carried out the implementation for us and I believe it was relatively easy. What other advice do I have? I rate this solution eight out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2022-01-06T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's a good tool that helps us manage the work our developers and software engineers do on-site, but it has a few things that tick me off What is our primary use case? We are an application development company, so DevOps helps us manage the work our developers and software engineers do on-site. It's convenient for customers because everybody works from home due to COVID. DevOps is used within our organization and we also encourage some of our clients who are interested in a development platform to use Azure DevOps, but we have other clients that actually prefer Red Hat or other platforms. We like Azure DevOps, but our cloud environment is AWS. We've done three implementations on AWS without any problem. How has it helped my organization? Our technical sales staff and business development people need to know how far the developers are on any product that we're developing. DevOps makes it easier for you to see how far along they are with the work because they have a repository where they store everything. There is a portal where you can see what has been done, what has been tested, what is working, and what isn't. I have a huge dashboard with an overview of what the development team is doing from an executive point of view. I know exactly what they're working on. If the team is falling behind on a project, there's a project management module where I can see exactly what was supposed to be delivered and what hasn't been. What needs improvement? I can't think of any specific things at the moment, but I've run into things that I didn't like. I came across something that I wanted to be changed in DevOps, but I can't remember what it was. It was a particular feature I was looking for that I couldn't find. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I'm happy with DevOps' stability. I've had problems with the Red Hat environment, but I think it also boils down still to implementation skills. We're a big Microsoft implementer, so we find Azure DevOps to be highly stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? DevOps is highly scalable. Before one of our clients decided to move to the cloud version of DevOps, they decided to try it in a small environment to see if they liked it. Previously, they had Team Foundation Server running on-premises, and we encouraged them to switch to DevOps. We set up a minimal environment and used it as a typical development environment. It wasn't for testing or anything. It was just a mini development environment that replicated their internal chassis. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Before we started using DevOps, we were using Microsoft Team Foundation Server, which allowed the whole team to share work and collaborate. DevOps does that and a little more. How was the initial setup? Most of the time we just leave it on the cloud instead of deploying it on-prem, unless a client requests on-prem. In that case, we just replicate the cloud environment in the on-prem environment. There's no real difference, and we've had some clients who change and say they now prefer to have it on the cloud. After the subscription, which took about a day, we had our B environment up and running, and everything was transferred from on-prem to the cloud. In the older days, it would take you about a month. But now, to move, it actually took us, I think, almost a week, because the biggest challenge was moving the data more than the environment. Moving the environment, it took about, I think, a day or two. But the data was a bit of a problem. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The cost of Azure DevOps is manageable. You have the option to purchase a license that is per user. You can choose based on the size of your team. For example, you can opt for a volume enterprise license or go for user-based licensing if you don't have a huge number of users. You can start with a smaller package and then scale up as needed. Let's say, for instance, you are a smaller company with about only 10 users of the environment. Then, two months later, you win the Powerball, and you get a billion dollars and bring in a thousand developers. You have the flexibility to move from a small-team subscription to a big subscription easily. So you don't necessarily have to take the volume. The licensing model covers all three tiers, whereby you can have a volume license, individual users, or groups. We are using groups, and we've found it affordable because you cancel their license if someone leaves. When we get a new person, we repurchase the license. We pay a monthly subscription, but the annual licenses are cheaper because of the commitment. What other advice do I have? I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. I would give it a higher rating, but there are a couple of things that tick me off. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Amazon Web Services (AWS) Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Effective pipeline creation, beneficial task management, and reliable What is our primary use case? We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for applications that analyze data and the data scientist creates the test data for the manual and automatic application tests. Here in Europe, we need anonymous synchronization of all data for testing. We create special applications for creating data for direct tests. What is most valuable? Microsoft Azure DevOps has been very good for creating pipelines, and all the solutions for creating task management for developers and for the business. What needs improvement? All of the tests of the applications are done on the mobile or web interface and it could be improved. The connection to Power BI could improve. Power BI is a very good platform for reporting and presenting processes, but a good engine does not exist to present the process development in time in Power BI. It's a typical business reporting tool. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately one year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is highly stable. There are two options to build. The first option is to build in the cloud, which is very stable but not quickly. The second is to build the systems in the local networks. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We have 5 to 10 people using this solution in my organization. We have three DevOps and the others are the QA cluster. How are customer service and support? We do not use support from Microsoft, we have not had any problems. How was the initial setup? The initial setup of this solution was complex. Every part of the implementation was difficult. For us to implement our production it took approximately 10 to 20 sprints. One sprint is two weeks. What about the implementation team? We require a three-person team for the maintenance and support of the solution. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The price of the solution is expensive. What other advice do I have? All people who work on projects must have good staff in development in .net, and need to have certificates. The minimal certificate is the AZ-204 Azure developer, it is obligatory. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a nine out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A complete package with good stability and scalability What is our primary use case? The purpose is for development and testing from the vendor side. Our company works as a vendor, client, and implementation partner. The vendor provides the product, and we make sure that it's implemented correctly for the client. The vendor uses it for the development and tracking of the requirement and the test cases, executions, and building storage. My access to these tools is very limited because the DevOps pipeline and DevOps is mainly used by the engineering team of development, but the QA is also part of it. Once those people are established, then we are the extended hands or extended part of that for usage. Once they have the stories and features, they start the test cases and link on it. From that point, we just take it forward and once they have a code pull, then we would pull it and build it and deploy it into some QA enrollment. There are around 20 people using DevOps in my company. What is most valuable? The best tool would be Azure DevOps. There are other tools with AWS and Google, but since Microsoft has solutions for everything, it's easier because it's all their tools. We may be using different tools in order to achieve all those things because they may not have an operating system or a pipeline, so maybe we are using some of the bill tools. In order to achieve DevOps, you may be using a set of different tools and connecting it. In Microsoft Azure DevOps, you have a one shop to get everything. What needs improvement? There isn't a requirement traceability matrix format. In ALM, we have a centralized repository of all the requirements in one place. But in DevOps, it works like a product requirement. In ALM we have the centralized repository of requirements where you can go and see the requirement coverage and discovery and so forth. But in DevOps, it has stories and test cases. Once that project is over, nobody is going back into that requirement. It's a good tool for development activity, tracking and getting all those metrics. If they can build up a requirement traceability matrix, then it would be great. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I haven't seen any issues with stability. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability of DevOps is good. How are customer service and support? We haven't had any issues with technical support. Whatever issues we've had, they were solved. How was the initial setup? I didn't see any complexity in the setup because everything is from Microsoft. The development tools and operation tools are coming from one shop, Microsoft, so it's easy to connect, plug in, and establish all those things. For Google Cloud or AWS, it's different because they use different tools in order to achieve what Microsoft is trying to achieve. For example, the CI/CD Pipeline. Even in ALM or in the DevOps tool, it's initially a one-time setup. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I don't know the pricing of DevOps. It would be much cheaper than ALM because ALM came out as a software product initially. Now they are moving into a cloud and subscription model. In that case, Microsoft is coming from Azure and the cloud and DevOps and software as a service, so it would be much cheaper, but the catch would be that they are trying to get money on all sides, like an operating system, Microsoft Office, or Microsoft Azure DevOps. The good part is that it's a complete package, but at the same time, once you've gone with them, you don't have much leverage to split out into some other activities because everything is interconnected and entwined by that time, and it would be like a monopoly. It won't be good if you try to split out at a later point in time because everything is connected—all our Microsoft products like operating systems, OfficeSuite, MS Teams, Azure DevOps, etc. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution 9 out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-12-02T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Scalable, simple installation, but dashboards could improve What is our primary use case? We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for our source control, change request management, and a small amount of Wiki. How has it helped my organization? Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped our organization from having completely automated builds. The developers can send their own code to QA without needing a release manager or lead or IT person moving the code over. What needs improvement? The dashboards need bigger with better extensions and layouts. There isn't a workflow related to the statuses on the dashboard. It only lists the statuses. You can have one started, and once done, but everything in between is only in progress and could be in any order you want, it lacks flow. For how long have I used the solution? I have used Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately one year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Last week the builds did stop working for some unknown reason, and then started again. Most of the time the stability is fine, but there are occasions when there's a problem on Microsoft's side, where it creates problems for us. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is scalable but you have to pay for it. We have approximately 40 people using this solution consisting of developers, QAs, and product owners. We are extensively using this solution in our organization. I wish the dashboards and the release process were integrated better. The use of Kanban dashboards could be a lot better. They don't have a Kanban dashboard. They have a dashboard with one sprint but it's not exactly the same as a Kanban dashboard. You are not able to do much with them. How are customer service and support? We have not needed to contact the support. How was the initial setup? The installation is straightforward. We can create a whole new organization in less than a day. What about the implementation team? We did the implementation ourselves. I do most of the maintenance but it is mostly maintenance-free. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? There are additional costs for some functionality, such as increased scalability. What other advice do I have? My advice to others is for them to do their research before implementing this solution. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a seven out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Intuitive and easy to use with good stability What is our primary use case? I primarily use the solution on projects often. We use it for our Git repository and the CI/CD. What is most valuable? I love how easy the solution is to use. It’s intuitive. I don’t need to reference a manual. Everything is just very naturally laid out. You can link your tasks and assign people. To me, it just makes sense. The user experience is excellent. I like the Kanban tasks and their various features. It’s all very straightforward. The one thing that really stands out to me is how you can filter and how you can do your reporting and filter the tasks and everything by user. Every time I try to do that in Jira, for example, it's a pain. The stability of the product is quite good. What needs improvement? I’m not sure what needs improvement. I don't even think I'm using everything. There are still a lot of things on the testing side that I'm not using. That said, there's, there's a lot that it can do. I wouldn't even know where to get started on discussing what it needs or lacks. We did have some brief performance issues, however, that was due to putting everything on one epic instead of breaking a project up. For how long have I used the solution? I’ve been using the solution for about four years now. It’s been a while. What do I think about the stability of the solution? For the most part, the stability is very good. There was one time there was a bit of a performance issue, however, it was just due to the fact that the project manager was overwhelmed. It slowed down and got laggy. We put everything on one story, one epic, and we realized we needed to split it up. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The product can scale. With the projects that I work on I just pick up Azure DevOps. It just makes sense. Everything from the beginning, for example, how the story starts right up to how it gets deployed and everything, is well laid out and you can adjust as needed. On the project that I'm doing right now, maybe have a team of ten. On other projects, for example, at my previous company, we had a hundred devs or so using it. How are customer service and support? Technical support has been very good. We used to call Microsoft and they would help us. They gave great support. We’re quite happy with their responsiveness and level of knowledge. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I also use Jira alongside Azure DevOps. I use both of them. I find DevOps easier to use and better laid out. I find Jira difficult and confusing. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is pretty straightforward. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I can’t speak to the exact pricing. It’s not an aspect of the product I deal with. What other advice do I have? We’re a customer and an end-user. I’m a big fan of DevOps. It’s a good project and I haven’t seen anything else like it. As we’re on the cloud deployment of the solution, we’re always on the latest version. I’d advise new users, if they are a Microsoft shop, to choose DevOps over Jira. It just makes more sense. I’d rate the solution at a ten out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-11T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A very stable and scalable solution which seamlessly integrates all ends of the process What is our primary use case? I do not recall which version we are using. The solution is good for everything, including end-to-end planning and its deployment and testing. What is most valuable? I like that the solution is stable and that all ends of the process are integrated seamlessly into the tool. These are the solution's greatest strengths. What needs improvement? The solution should have fewer updates. We need the updates for July. Microsoft tools are sometimes too feature heavy and offer more features than the person actually needs to use. This is why I did not rate it as a ten out ten. While the installation did seem to be pretty straightforward, I believe it took awhile, even though I am not aware of the specifics involved. We initially found ourselves struggling with this process. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for around two years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is very scalable. How are customer service and support? I feel the technical support to be fine. We have not encountered any issues in this regard. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Prior to Microsoft Azure DevOps, we were using Jira and, before this, KFS. How was the initial setup? While the installation did seem to be pretty straightforward, I believe it took awhile, even though I am not aware of the specifics involved. We struggled with this initially. What about the implementation team? The installation was undertaken by a consultant. There was a team of, perhaps, five engineers involved. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I am not aware of any licensing subscriptions for the solution. What other advice do I have? I would very much recommend the solution to others. I don't see the need for more integration with other platforms, as the solution is already pretty well integrated, at least, that is, for our needs. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps as a nine or ten out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-24T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good for collaboration and has useful application insights What is our primary use case? Our primary use case of Azure is to host our web application. We used Azure SQL databases for our project and found it useful to host our web application and make use of all Azure's facilities, such as function apps, API management services, etc. This solution is cloud deployed. What is most valuable? Some of the most valuable features are the ease of use and the ability to monitor a lot of things. It has a lot of applications and facilities that meet all the developers' requirements. For example, we can use application insights to get an idea of our application's performance. Since it's cloud-based, it's really good for collaboration and working as a team. What needs improvement? I can't think of anything I would like to improve, since I don't have complete knowledge of the platform yet. I'm sure that as I gain more experience, I will understand it better. The price could maybe be cheaper, but I'm sure I'll have more ideas as to improvements and additional features once I've used it more. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for about two months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? This solution is stable. From what I have used it for, it has been pretty efficient. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? This solution is scalable. Most of my team uses Azure DevOps and other Azure facilities, so there are quite a lot of users. How are customer service and support? I haven't felt the need to contact support. I'm not sure if any of my friends or colleagues have, but one thing about Microsoft is the documentation is extremely good. So we barely falter anywhere because if we thoroughly follow the documentation, it's pretty easy to follow the process through. How was the initial setup? The installation is straightforward since it's cloud-based. You can do it yourself. For deployment, we were a team of about 20 people. What about the implementation team? We implemented through an in-house team. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? This product could maybe be cheaper. My organization handled licensing, so I'm not aware of which subscription they have. What other advice do I have? I rate this product an eight-and-a-half or nine out of ten. I have partial knowledge about it, since I haven't really explored everything in proper elaborate detail, but I would definitely recommend Microsoft Azure DevOps to others considering implementation. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-29T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Difficult to customize and limited in terms of project management, but is stable and easy to set up What is our primary use case? We have a number of use cases. One of them is development, which includes several development teams that use source code control and testing support, as well as the entire software development toolset. I only use the front end, which is the project task management part. How has it helped my organization? I don't have any metrics on that. I can only give you anecdotal evidence. One of the benefits of using a Kanban board is that it keeps track of how long tasks take. People would hold onto tasks for three or four weeks before we started using the Kanban board. However, once we began using the Kanban board, it became more visible. We also realized that we needed to divide the tasks into smaller sections, and the tasks lasted an average of a week. As a result, the throughput and velocity increased simply because the Kanban board made them more visible. What is most valuable? I found the Kanban board to be the most useful for my needs. I'm a project manager. I've been working with non-technical teams and training them on agile methodologies. Using a Kanban board is usually the most straightforward way to get a non-technical team started with an online task tracking tool. What needs improvement? In comparison to JIRA, I believe DevOps has very poor reporting and metrics support. They've done very little work, and they could benefit greatly from improved reporting and metrics. Essentially, I would like to see more reporting support. For how long have I used the solution? This solution was already in place when I started. I'm not sure when it was first put in place. I started with the company in May of 2018, and have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps ever since. We are using the most recent version. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is difficult to customize DevOps. It's similar to a product that has had features added to it rather than being completely redesigned. As a result, it has limitations in terms of scalability and customization. The most successful users are software developers and technical software managers. How are customer service and support? I believe it is quite minimal. Microsoft, in my opinion, does not provide adequate support. My solutions are mostly found online. With JIRA, you could call someone, and they had a large community of users who could answer your questions. They also had a support department that provided assistance. Microsoft has a lot of information online, but you have to find it, look around its various websites. It is not well supported. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I used to work as an engineering manager, a scrum master, and as part of a technical team. JIRA is my preferred tool for this. JIRA is a more robust and mature tool. However, as you are aware, JIRA is more modular and requires integration with other parts. DevOps, on the other hand, has everything in one, it combines source code control, release management, and task tracking. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is fairly straightforward. It's one of its advantages over JIRA. It is easier to set up because it is a simple product, whereas JIRA is more complex, more mature and complete, and more difficult to set up. We have two or three technicians who deploy and maintain this solution. What other advice do I have? You would really have to do a comparison, and you would need some training. It really depends on your project management and reporting requirements. DevOps is simple to use, but it is severely limited in terms of project management. JIRA is complete, but it's a lot more complicated. I only use it for project management and the tools associated with project management. I know it's popular among those who use it for source code control and release management. It appears to be more satisfactory for that purpose. I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a five out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-12-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great all-round functionality with a very good project management feature What is our primary use case? We provide this solution to our clients. The company we're currently assisting has had a lot of issues using Jenkins and decided to move the CI/CD pipelines to Azure DevOps. I'm a solution architect and we are partners with Microsoft. What is most valuable? The solution offers great features including the project management feature and the Git-based repository. There is also the Azure pipelines and release artifact so you have all the functionality in one tool. It's also a relatively cheap solution. What needs improvement? The only area that requires improvement is the interface. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability is good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability is good. How are customer service and support? The technical support is good. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is easy. We had a team of three engineers dealing with implementation. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Licensing costs are very reasonable compared to other solutions. It's a good price. What other advice do I have? My only advice would be to go for the cloud version of DevOps, it's a better product. I rate the solution eight out of 10. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The software covers the whole development cycle, from requirements analysis to deployment What is our primary use case? We use Azure DevOps for the entire lifecycle of software development, starting with requirements analysis. After that, we use it to continue the process of development and deployment. What is most valuable? Azure DevOps is user-friendly. The UI and the UX are perfect. Their software covers the whole development cycle, from requirements analysis to deployment. In particular, it's helpful in the requirements analysis phase. You can apply your methodology or Agile framework from the beginning. After choosing the framework, like Agile or Scrum, Azure DevOps provides many features, like user stories, tasks, managing boards, and those kinds of things. Azure DevOps is complete and meets all of your expectations. You can develop your own plugins to customize it however you want, so it's highly flexible. We develop personalized plugins or use ones that other programmers create for the Azure Marketplace. This makes up for any possible deficiency in Azure DevOps features. If you want some capability that Azure DevOps doesn't provide, you can develop your plugin or customize any part of it. The options for customization make it worthwhile for any software development. What needs improvement? Microsoft could focus on refining the reporting and dashboard elements of Azure DevOps to improve it. For how long have I used the solution? I've been working with DevOps for about five years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? DevOps is totally stable. And if there are any problems, Microsoft patches them as soon as possible. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? When you enter into Microsoft ecosystem, you can scale any part of the product in this ecosystem. For example, you can connect Azure DevOps to Microsoft SharePoint for knowledge or document management. You can connect Azure DevOps to OneDrive for storage. You can connect it with Skype for chatting or Outlook. How are customer service and support? We don't use support from Microsoft. We mostly solve problems by searching for solutions on sites like GitHub and that kind of thing. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I've used Atlassian products like Jira, Confluence, and HipChat, but I prefer Azure DevOps and the Microsoft ecosystem. How was the initial setup? It is effortless to set up DevOps. All Microsoft products are user-friendly and easy to install. If you run into any obstacles, you can use Microsoft library or MSDN for any further help that you need. Microsoft provides a lot of wizards that you can use to solve your problem. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Ability to run tests and has automation tools but integration process could be improved What is our primary use case? Our only use case with DevOps was for integration with ReadyAPI. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is that we can run integrations with DevOps. From a QA perspective and a testing perspective, we can run those tests and integrate automation tools. Then we can run those tests as part of the deployment process. Every time we are deploying something, it automatically runs all the tests. What needs improvement? Something that could be improved is the initial setup with the integration of ReadyAPI. For how long have I used the solution? I used this solution for six months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability is fine. I was getting some errors, but that was due to my side of things. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability is fine. How was the initial setup? I would rate this solution 6 out of 10. I did have some issues due to our organization, but it would be different for everyone. My advice is to reach out to support if you have any problems. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It allows us to manage a project and follow up with our business, development, and testing teams What is our primary use case? We use DevOps for backlogs and work items. We divide our releases into many sprints to keep our development on time, and we use DevOps to manage tasks for development or business teams. What is most valuable? DevOps is easy to use because we can arrange each task in a project and follow up with the testing, development, and business teams. We manage everything through this. What needs improvement? I want DevOps to have more automated reminders about tasks that don't need management. We don't have reminders, so a project manager must track the tasks. It's not automatic. For how long have I used the solution? We've been using Azure DevOps for three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? DevOps is stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? DevOps is scalable. About 70 people use the solution on average. How was the initial setup? Another team handles the implementation, so I wasn't involved. I'm on the business team. Two engineers are responsible for deploying and managing DevOps. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We pay for a yearly license. What other advice do I have? I rate Azure DevOps eight out of 10. I prefer Jira, but both solutions are very nice. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-16T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great serverless technology that makes it quicker and faster to deploy .NET applications What is our primary use case? I use it to, for example, build applications. Not just Subnet - also Java or in OGS. I deploy Windows applications and also mobile applications with Visual Studio App Center and Azure DevOps. What is most valuable? Azure services like serverless technology make it quicker and faster to deploy .NET applications, for example. Similarly, the Azure Portal is faster to put in services, for example, with specific functionality. These kinds of features are faster to deploy and to put in functionalities that are specific, which is great. I like the Azure keyboard. Keyboard permits use, for example, connection streams in secret, in a safe manner. Sometimes I use also Azure SQL Database cloud, the serverless functionality. It's also very attractive because you can use something like a GP, like the protection of the data on the cloud. You can put a lot of information there, maybe not with banks, however, with other kinds of clients. The ability to have cognitive services is good. For example, I use a lot of Azure DevOps, for example, Cloud, Azure DevOps Cloud, and analytics views with, for example, Power BI on-premise if you have Power BI as a service. There is a lot of pipeline potential with Azure DevOps deploying, for example, Containers, to Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service, and also a lot of Azure Container repositories and Azure Container instances. This is great for quickly deploying SonarQube in a container. These kinds of things are very attractive. It's a pretty problem-free solution. What needs improvement? When we don't have some permissions, we have to research how to get them. It's not obvious. For example, deploying in order to do the connections, we need permissions for quotes or quotas. A specific quota might depend on an account. Sometimes we don't have the kind of support we need to work things out easily. When you deploy in Yaml Pilot, for example, you need to note in Yaml how to associate the piling, the release with the word items. We need more information about how this is possible and more flexibility to make it happen. What other advice do I have? My organization is a Microsoft partner. I have Microsoft certifications. I always develop in Visual Studio, .NET, or Core, and now I work with Azure DevOps and also in Azure Portal. I deployed in a hybrid environment as the clients have a lot of things on-premises. For example, the databases I use, for example, Redgate, plus Azure DevOps, or Apex with Azure DevOps, to deploy databases. In some cases, a lot of banks prefer their data on-premise. In other cases, I deploy to Azure App Services, for example, in the cloud. Also, I see things with Amazon Web Services and telephone, like multi-cloud. I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten as it never gives me any problems. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-18T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A cloud-based, scalable solution but it is set up more for development and less for testing What is our primary use case? We use it for requirements, development work, and testing. We're doing an implementation at the moment with the client. So, it is the latest version that would've been uploaded. What is most valuable? It is a cloud-based system. So, it is stable and scalable. What needs improvement? Azure DevOps is set up more for development and less for testing. If it is set up correctly, everyone can use it better, but it was set up from a development point of view, which means it is lacking in what I need from a testing perspective. Just like any other tool, it depends on how it is configured. I am not happy with the way it is set up. It is configured more from a development side, and it doesn't necessarily cater to all the other areas that probably need to use it, such as testing data, etc. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for about 15 months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Its stability and performance are okay. It is on the cloud. As long as you have got access to it, it is stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is a cloud-based system. So, you can add more bandwidth. It is scalable on the cloud. We have about a hundred users who are using this solution. It is used on a daily basis. How are customer service and support? A third party deals with the technical support of it at the moment. How was the initial setup? I wasn't around when they initially set it up, but the way it is set up, it is too complex. It is probably good for developers, but it is not good for the testing side. What about the implementation team? It is a third party that sets it up. I don't know about its maintenance because I'm not that close to it. What other advice do I have? I would advise organizing and doing the right assessment for all teams that are going to use it. When it is being set up, more people within the program need to be involved in the setup, not just the developers. You need to know about the requirements for design, development, testing, integrations, and architecture. You need to solicit requirements on what each one of these teams needs from the tool before the tool is configured. When you set something up only from the development perspective, you forget that there would be a need to extract information for data testing and training. So, you need to assess who all are going to use the tool so that you set it up for maximum usage. At this time, I'd rather not recommend it because it wasn't set up correctly. It wasn't set up with other teams involved. In a year's time, if I'm working on it again, I may have a different opinion. I would rate it a five out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It integrates well with other tools in the software development process, like quality testing, documentation, and agile development. What is our primary use case? We have separate DevOps processes for different teams. We're implementing agile processes, so we have cells for each product, and each cell has its own DevOps process. This means we have a DevOps process in GitHub, GitLab, and another tool. We have lots of costs and can't share experience between teams. The idea was to unify everything in one product to ensure that we standardize DevOps practices on the same tool to have better knowledge and expertise and focus on a specific tool. How has it helped my organization? We had a lack of governance over DevOps processes, so we had some quality issues in the end when we released the software products. DevOps has helped to resolve those issues. What is most valuable? Azure DevOps' collaborative features are good, and it integrates well with other tools in the software development process, like quality testing, documentation, and agile development. What needs improvement? I think Azure DevOps could improve the traceability or business intelligence about the execution of DevOps processes. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using DevOps for three years. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Azure DevOps is scalable. How was the initial setup? We have good people with a lot of experience in DevOps, so it's not complex for us. The most significant difficulty in adopting the tool was changing our past processes to move to the standardization model we defined with Microsoft DevOps. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We have a yearly agreement with Microsoft to cover the different companies. What other advice do I have? I rate Azure DevOps nine out of 10. I would give it a perfect 10 if Microsoft offered personalized support. Sometimes we call Microsoft with requests, and it would be nice to have personalized processes with our specialized services. We have two different approaches for products. One is to support products that we provide our customers. The other is creating a digital transformation strategy for new products. We are using DevOps in the latest products, and in the future, we are going to grow with support for products we have produced in the digital transformation. This is part of our roadmap to implement DevOps in all the processes in every technological area of our companies. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-19T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The platform visuals and workflow are straightforward What is most valuable? We use all the DevOps features and services, like reports, Boards, Pipelines, Artifactory, etc. The interface is interactive and intuitive. The platform visuals and workflow are straightforward in Azure DevOps. For how long have I used the solution? We've been using Azure DevOps for three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? DevOps' stability is great. No problems. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The infrastructure is good so far, and expanding our user base isn't a problem. Microsoft takes care of the infrastructure. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We are billed for a single license, no matter how many users. What other advice do I have? I rate Azure DevOps eight out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-25T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We are 100% satisfied with it What is our primary use case? I have been working with it for different projects and purposes. I'm basically the main architect for such solutions. What is most valuable? It is stable. I like Azure a lot. All our guys are Microsoft certified. What needs improvement? It is fairly new, so there are a lot of changes, and because it keeps on changing, you need to adapt to those changes. Its setup is quite complex. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is stable. How are customer service and support? We never used Microsoft's technical support. We always get it right. How was the initial setup? Its initial setup is quite complex. There are a lot of caveats. Even if I can call a setup out of the box, it is not really out of the box. What about the implementation team? We managed everything on our own. It involved fitting other products with the existing product. If you don't encounter problems, you're not going to learn. What other advice do I have? We are 100% satisfied with it. I would rate it a nine out of 10. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Fast, scalable, and stable work planning and code collaboration software; offers a good user experience What is our primary use case? We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for management, e.g. managing items that we need to work on, planning activities, connecting to components to get information on how long the developer is working on the items assigned, etc. We use the solution for our projects. We have internal users from the development team, and we have the work logs that we need to work on for each customer. We match those to have control over the projects and the budget. We have a component plugged into the solution for the billables and performance delivery. What we don't have yet is optimization, and that is something that needs to be improved in Microsoft Azure DevOps, but the solution has all the activities and the budgeting functions, so the project is working good. We're making an exact component in seven days that we can use with the solution. What is most valuable? One of the features I found most useful in Microsoft Azure DevOps is that we can use it to plan activities. We use the dashboard to work on the tasks we have, and also use it to find out what could be better. It's also useful when you have many customers and many people working together on different projects. In our case, we have one developer working on more than one project within the same day, week, or month, and Microsoft Azure DevOps helps give better control of his schedule, making it easier to find out if the developer still has availability to take on new work. The solution helps us see the work status and availability of team members, making work management and task management better. The validation and quality offered by Microsoft Azure DevOps are very good. The user experience is good. The speed of the solution is also good, e.g. the pages load fast. What needs improvement? The optimization feature in Microsoft Azure DevOps needs improvement. Sometimes, having control over multiple projects for a customer could be difficult. If you're a developer, you need to know if you still have time to work on more activities within the day. When you're working on one project for one customer, Microsoft Azure DevOps is great, but when your team is working on different projects for several clients, it may be too hard to handle, e.g. you really need to organize and plan the activities, so planning is another area for improvement in the solution. Planning includes budgeting, e.g. creating a budget for each project, especially if the developer is working on multiple projects of customers. You need to have control and see to it that you are within budget, but it can be hard because you can't always see the daily, weekly, or monthly activities of the developer, particularly if the developer doesn't keep the calendar updated. We want to be able to view the complete list of activities of the developer, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, to make planning and budgeting easier. I'd also like the Microsoft Azure DevOps Gantt chart to be improved. We need to see in the schedule how to plan the fields out. We have daily activities and we'd like to use the Gantt chart to make our work approach more successful. For how long have I used the solution? We've been a partner of Microsoft for 10 years, and we've been using Microsoft solutions for 10 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is stable. Sometimes there's a little lag, but the next day, it'll work fine. The solution works fine. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is a scalable solution. How was the initial setup? Setting up Microsoft Azure DevOps was easy. What other advice do I have? We use Microsoft solutions as part of management. We use Microsoft's platform. We use the latest version of Microsoft Azure DevOps for our projects. We have 15 people who are in charge of the deployment and maintenance of the solution. Per project, we have one or two developers who utilize Microsoft Azure DevOps: At the beginning, we have the front end developer and the cloud personnel who create the environment, the designer who works to create the right frame, the right materials, the layout, and the design for the project, and at the middle, we have four to five operators. The platform works well so we didn't have the need to open a ticket or contact Microsoft technical support. I really like Microsoft Azure DevOps, so I recommend it to people who want to start using it. My advice to them is that it's a huge platform, so it won't be easy the first time. When you test the platform, you need to spend time and make an effort to understand how it works, but it's the best solution. It's the top solution. Another advice to new users of Microsoft Azure DevOps is that it's harder to have a macro view of all the processes together. When we needed to cross-match a lot of information from the different processing teams of customers, we found it difficult. You also need to plan well, particularly plan when your developer can work on more than one project. When you have many projects, you need to handle the processes well, e.g. create separate folders for each customer, separate projects, etc., to keep the information separate and be more organized. Microsoft Azure DevOps could still be improved more, so I'm rating it an eight out of ten. We are a partner of Microsoft, and we use Microsoft solutions. What we recommend to our customers is for them to use the Microsoft environment, server and databases. We work with some of the solutions and technologies from Microsoft. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-24T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Can be used to follow the whole development process and is easy to install What is our primary use case? There are two versions of Azure DevOps: the cloud version and the on-premises version. We use the cloud version in very few situations, but most of our software is based on Azure DevOps on-premises. We are a software house, and we develop software. We use it to store our source code; that is, it is the repository for our source code. We have different teams working on different products, and each one uses a different methodology and a different process. Azure DevOps helps with that. For instance, one group may be using Scrum as a methodology to develop their software. The other group could also be using Scrum but with CDCI (continuous development, continuous integration), which helps a lot when you have to develop, test, and deploy the solution. What is most valuable? I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us. What needs improvement? As for improvement, the first one is pricing. For us, luckily because we are partners, it's free. Microsoft gold partners do not have to pay, but if you're not a partner, the product is very expensive. The second would be that the tool should integrate with some of the competitors. It doesn't matter if it's a big market; it's difficult when you have to integrate with other competitor's tools, like JIRA, for instance. If you look at the competitor's tools, they integrate easily with Microsoft, but on Microsoft's side, it's not as easy. They have been changing, but still, there are a number of gaps there. I've got teams that want to use Microsoft Project, not only to control the whole process of the development but also to control the whole project and software. I think Project should be integrated with DevOps. For how long have I used the solution? We have been using this solution for 10 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is very stable. I think the system is down only a couple of hours per year, so it's very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It's very scalable. We started using this solution 10 years ago, and it has evolved, We also have grown our software production, and so far, we have scope with all these situations. How are customer service and support? We haven't had any problems with the product, but every time we had some questions, technical support staff answered pretty fast, in less than 24 hours. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is pretty easy. For the deployment, I think we had two people: one person from infrastructure and one who was a specialist in Azure DevOps. For maintenance, because we have about 80 people using this software, we only have one and a half people taking care of the software. That is, the infrastructure person does this part-time. He doesn't spend the whole day taking care of DevOps. What was our ROI? The ROI is very positive for us, but it's difficult to say how it would be if we had to pay for the solution. It's a very worthwhile product, but again, we don't have any comparisons because we don't pay anything for it. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Microsoft Azure DevOps is an expensive solution. What other advice do I have? Get to know the product because it is complex and has many different possibilities. It is worth having it, but you have to have an in-depth understanding and know what it is capable of doing. Otherwise, you're going to install it, and then it will be like having a very nice car in your garage that you don't know how to drive. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps at eight. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-19T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Efficient operations, highly secure, and responsive support What is our primary use case? We are using Azure DevOps for continuous integration and continuous deployment. What is most valuable? Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped the developers a lot and we are deploying process changes very frequently and simultaneously. A lot of my team members that are developers are updating the code in parallel using Git. Additionally, Microsoft Azure DevOps is providing a very good approval mechanism. Overall it is benefiting by creating efficiency in production deployment and applications, our new releases are running well. The security of secured is good. What needs improvement? We are facing a lot of issues in the development of containerized solutions. We are facing a lot of challenges in this area. They could make the process simpler. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately four years. How are customer service and support? The technical support from Microsoft Azure DevOps is good. Whenever we have raised a ticket with priority, we had a very good response from the technical team. My experience with Microsoft support is very good. How was the initial setup? The integrations of Microsoft Azure DevOps are good and the implementation is not difficult. The testing of the solution went well. What was our ROI? I have seen a return on investment from using Microsoft Azure DevOps. What other advice do I have? We have spread the knowledge about Microsoft Azure DevOps to a lot of our customers. We have organized a lot of training sessions because we are Microsoft's gold partner. That is why we promote all the tools and technologies which are part of Microsoft and we're also using them. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a nine out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Integrates well, scalable, and straightforward setup What is our primary use case? Microsoft Azure DevOps is used for source code versioning, issue tracking, documentation storage, and sharing. What is most valuable? My team likes the integration that Microsoft Azure DevOps has with GitHub and Microsoft Teams. The solution is well integrated with other Microsoft tools in one place, it is very good. What needs improvement? Microsoft Azure DevOps could improve by having better integration with other email servers. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for a few years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is quite stable. When we were configuring some continuous integration pipelines, we had some issues, but it was not a large issue. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is scalable enough for what we use it for, we have small teams of approximately 25 people. It's more than enough right now. How are customer service and support? We didn't have many incidents to contact the support about. However, they were decent. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I was previously using Jira. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is straightforward. The configuration of Microsoft Azure DevOps could be better. The documentation needs to be improved. What about the implementation team? The implementation and maintenance of the solution are done by our DevOps department. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We do not pay licenses for this solution. What other advice do I have? I would recommend this solution to others. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-17T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Scalable and stable What needs improvement? As for room for improvement, more features need to be added to the classic pipeline. The build and release pipelines are present, but there has not been much improvement there. Apart from that, the reporting structure could be provided as well. Depending on how the company is using the technology, there may be other Microsoft tools that are better so that the integration and reporting will be easier. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for almost five or six years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is stable, and we have had no issues with it. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is scalable. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution at eight on a scale from one to ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Build pipelines are useful, and it is easy to deploy and good for monitoring purposes What is most valuable? It is good for monitoring purposes. We are using the build pipelines of Microsoft Azure. They are also valuable. What needs improvement? We are facing some problems because the capacity can only be measured within a project. It cannot be measured across multiple projects. So, the reporting needs to be enhanced, and there should be more graphs to be able to easily give the upper management insights about all the employees from different departments. It will be helpful for employee management. Currently, the managers over here are using Power BI for insights because the functionality of Azure DevOps Boards is not enough. So, we have to export the data into another visualization tool and get the results. We would like to have templates for work items. They are available in the Azure DevOps services on the server, but they are not available in the on-prem solution. We are using an on-prem server, and we are using version 2020.1119. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for almost four to five years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It works well. There are no issues. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is easy to scale. In our organization, some teams are using it, and some teams are not using it. We probably have 80 to 100 people. How are customer service and support? Their technical support is good. We haven't faced many issues. As far as I remember, we have had only one issue. We raised a ticket for that, and they resolved the issue. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have also used Jira. We have more control over Jira than Azure DevOps, but we are using Azure DevOps for our technical side because our VMs and build pipelines are on Azure. So, it is better for us to use one solution rather than using multiple solutions. How was the initial setup? It is straightforward. It is not that complex. In terms of maintenance, we only do maintenance when we have new upgrades. Other than that, we don't need to maintain it much. We have optimized the TFS and Azure DevOps database, and we have done indexing and optimized it. It is pretty good. What other advice do I have? I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A reliable ecosystem with the capability to expand as needed What is our primary use case? We produce multiple different software for different markets in different countries. It's really for everything you can possibly think of, from online games to financial systems, to payment gateways, to APIs, to service desks, back-office analysis tools, admin tools, et cetera. We use it for anything and everything really. What is most valuable? The solution is great due to the fact that it's kind of an entire ecosystem. I'd say the work items are probably the most valuable aspect. The stability has been great. The solution is scalable. What needs improvement? The interface is very bad. It's an aspect that really needs to be worked on. It is going to probably get the developers to start abandoning work items. Our initial setup was quite complex. The presence of Microsoft in the country is limited. For how long have I used the solution? I've used the solution since it came on the upgraded from Team Foundation Server - about ten years. We've used it for a very long time. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability has always been really good. There aren't bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We've found the scalability to be good. We have about 2,000 users on it right now. We haven't had any issues with scaling as needed. How was the initial setup? For us, the initial setup was extremely complex due to the multiple organizations we had on the go. We actually had to abandon our initial rollout and rethink the whole process though. I'm in compliance, and therefore cannot speak to what the maintenance process is like for the solution. What about the implementation team? We had a combination of both in-house and vendor help with the setup process. We've got enterprise agreements with Microsoft, so they always give us resources to assist with our deployments. We already had TFS deployed, so it was an upgrade, really. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I don't deal with licensing. I can't speak to how much the solution costs. What other advice do I have? I'm just a customer and an end-user. I'd advise new users to plan very carefully the way that they would like to set up projects. The model that you choose is extremely important and you might have to do a lot of rework if you don't get it right the first time. I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's Microsoft. It's backed by the mighty, mega Microsoft. You can't get fired for choosing the top product run by a top multinational company. The downside for us here is, in South Africa, there are only two points of presence. For the data, if it's fully hosted, we only have Capetown and Johannesburg. When it comes to back hall speeds for internet, it could be better if we had points of presence in all the major cities, however, I suppose it's too much investment for Microsoft to make. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-04-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good visualization, and transparency, but the price could be reduced What is our primary use case? We use Microsoft Azure DevOps for CICD, and to organize it in order to visualize the ongoing work. What is most valuable? It allows you to save time while also providing a governance visualization of ongoing activities and transparency. The most valuable feature of this solution is that it saves time. What needs improvement? The price could be reduced. It is expensive, especially when it comes to infrastructure. The integration could be better. Being more technology-agnostic through ease of integration would be beneficial. Once you start working for Microsoft, you are frequently tied to Microsoft. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for the last ten years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is scalable. How are customer service and support? I would say the technical support is fine, but I have not had any trouble with the solution. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have some experience using Jira. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? It is very expensive in comparison to others. As the cost structure is per user, I would recommend paying the cost structure based on the amount of data you use rather than the number of users. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I have recently researched Jira, Microsoft DevOps, TFS, and Micro Focus. What other advice do I have? Mostly, because of the pricing, I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a seven out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2022-03-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from High level protection, scales well, but more customer feedback updates needed What is our primary use case? I work for a telecommunication company that offered television via IPTV. IPTV is an internet protocol television, such as AT&T U-verse or Fios from Verizon. All of the IPTV systems are proprietary, meaning that's not open to the customer, only to the infrastructure. Before Microsoft Azure DevOps, customers only use what are called set-top boxes. When you are deploying Microsoft Azure DevOps, you don't need the set-top box anymore. You only need a client that can go in, but you have to deploy it. You have to understand what the customer has and what they needed to have in place for on-premise, hybrid, or in production. Microsoft Azure DevOps does not use the set-top boxes. You have something else that is called OTT or over the top. What that means is the deployment that you're going to do depends on the client the customer is going to use. The deployment has to be tested, and that's why we have the different deployments available, on-premise, cloud, and hybrid. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure DevOps are high-level protection. The protection is very important to the customers to prevent eavesdropping. eavesdropping is when a hacker tries to get into the solution. With this solution is it difficult for them to do it. In the hybrid deployment, you can test everything. The customer was perfectly happy that developed the code, and when they put it in the hybrid Microsoft Azure DevOps and tested it as if it were in real production. That's the part that I've really enjoyed the most, is seeing how a product that was developed by the customer was tested perfectly. If something is wrong, we come back to Microsoft Azure DevOps for whatever they need to do. If they need to go deeper, they can use TFS which is part of DevOps and show it to the program manager or developer. What needs improvement? Microsoft Azure DevOps needs to be updated in my time. In the application that I was managing myself in the deployment and support, it was updated every six weeks. The customer had new features or new batches. Batching is an update of the software. Unfortunately, some of the DevOps or some of the people that were working on that part, do not have the final experience from what customers have. This is something that I did with several teams in Microsoft. We told the product unit manager if you want to understand what is happening from a customer standpoint you need to start from the beginning. Having customers find a problem can not be the only way to find issues to resolve them. Testing is very important. Microsoft Azure DevOps tests very well. However, DevOps teams need to be aware of what they are impacting when someone updates anything on the system. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately What do I think about the stability of the solution? It's important to know what kind of DevOps you are going to have. If they're going to work with Microsoft Azure DevOps, they need to understand the solution very well. They cannot just start doing things because they wanted to try and do them. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is scalable if you have everything in place, such as the service map and processes. Before you do anything, you have to understand what the impact will be on the customer. We had over 10 million people using this solution worldwide. I have worked in many countries, such as the Americas, Canada, and Chile. Many of our product groups were in China, India, France, and Israel. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have used Amazon AWS previously. When I compare when Microsoft Azure with Amazon AWS. The two of them offer the same features. You have the storage, performance, connectivity, et cetera. However, on the hybrid, Microsoft Azure DevOps is a lot better than Amazon AWS because you can emulate it perfectly. The hop counts matter, which is how many times one communication connects on its travels from one device to another. How was the initial setup? There are three ways to deploy Microsoft Azure DevOps. To set up all three deployments is very similar but different. The on-premise deployment is where the customer owns the code. What Microsoft Azure DevOps does lets you develop your code, and when you have finished your code, you have to put it in the cloud for the hybrid. Then you can test it in an environment that is similar to production. I was in charge of making sure that everything was set up correctly. I was involved from the beginning of the implementation. I'm a project manager myself too. I don't have certification, but I've been doing project management all my life. One important element when doing the implementation is the voice of the customer. No matter what you're configuring or setting up, if the voice of the customer is not there, but the voice of the business and the employees is, that is only two-thirds of what you have to do. For example, I want my customers to run this application even if they are in the jungle. If they have access to WiFi, cellular signal, or hotspots, they can have access to anything that Microsoft Azure DevOps can give to them. Except they need a client, and that's the other part. You need to understand what clients the customers are going to need. The clients depend on three things. You need to know the infrastructure of the customers, their immediate needs, and the needs of their customers. We're developing something for the customer who has customers. Unfortunately is not only DevOps, it's everything. DevOps is only one part. DevOps has one issue. There are components that are produced and supported by other teams somewhere else. Service maps are very important to develop with DevOps teams. When we develop the service map, they know what to do. However, some DevOps do not like to have service maps, because they say that they know what to do. That's what the problem is, they need to understand that they're not alone. What about the implementation team? I have worked with integrators, vendors, resellers, consultants, and in-house teams. You have to be a very good project, delivery, and program manager, in order to understand how to work with vendors. For example, you need to know how to work with people who, are going to cable a house, building, or something similar. You need to understand specifically what are the requirements that they have as a company. Additionally, you need to understand the company to know the requirements of the customers. If you are not familiar with any one of those, the deployment is going to be a total fiasco. You have to know what is going on. You have to know the vendor. The vendor can tell you a lot. For example, when the materials are available, if there is a problem with the supply chain, what do in this circumstance. The vendor knows about the RMS or the return of the devices. You have to know everything from the deployment, such as RMS to return back, refunds, purchase orders, and goods received. What was our ROI? The return on investment from Microsoft Azure DevOps depends on how many customers you have and how fast are you going to be able to have something ready for your customers. I have a customer who wanted to start quickly on the cloud. They have about three million customers working in one area, and only when 100,000 started did they receive a return on investment. It was not immediate but in approximately a year or a year and a half, they had a return on investment with every single customer. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The reason that customers are going to the cloud is that it provides the ability to reduce the license cost. For example, when purchasing Office 365 it is bundled with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and many other applications. In the past, purchasing a license was approximately $600. Today it's only $35 or $45 per customer, per client, or per user, plus the storage. It's less expensive for companies today, to use something, such as Microsoft Azure DevOps, and provide the software to all the employees needing a license. It's better to go with the cloud than just to buy the licenses by themselves. There are some additional costs. You pay for how much space you are using. If you don't use too much space, then the price will be very little. If you use a lot of space, you have to pay for it. Additionally, they offer readiness training. It is not included directly in what is called a statement of work when you are doing business with customers. This is when things can be a little more difficult because it can be expensive for customers if they want to change deployments from on-premises to cloud or hybrid. What other advice do I have? The voice of the customer is very important. Develop the software based on the voice of the customer. I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great automation with version control and expands well What is our primary use case? The main use of this solution are to combine software development and IT operations. Also, we use it for automation with version control and microservices. Automation is a core principle for achieving DevOps success and CI/CD is a critical component. The application of continuous delivery and DevOps to data analytics has been termed DataOps. DevOps focuses on the deployment of developed software, whether it is developed via Agile or other methodologies. ArchOps presents an extension for DevOps practice, starting from artifacts, instead of source code, for operational deployment. How has it helped my organization? This solution has offered lots of improvements. The most important improvement was to provide continuous delivery with high-quality software. It helps with version control with automation using CI/CD components. It also helps to develop software using the agile methodology. The ability of different disciplines (development, operations, and infosec) to achieve outcomes has been great. Increased focus on test automation and continuous integration methods are helpful. It helps release new features continuously into large-scale high-availability systems while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is automation with version control. DevOps initiatives can create cultural changes in companies by transforming the way operations, developers, and testers collaborate during the development and delivery processes. We can release new features continuously into large-scale high-availability systems while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience. Adopting DevOps will also help eliminate the old and monotonous way of agile activity among big IT teams like network, Storage Team, Linux/Unix, Windows, etc. What needs improvement? It’s commonly observed that you cannot just change a company’s culture on command. You can influence the culture, shift it, and while it can evolve over time, it’s nearly impossible to just instruct all employees to simply change the way they think and act about specific things. The culture of any organization starts at the top of the leadership hierarchy and trickles down throughout, filling every empty space. It is essential that you get buy-in from the top management down to everyone in the pipeline. In order to do this, all involved need to understand the advantages the shift is going to have on the organization and on the team members. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using the solution for the last two years. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability is very good. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We didn't use any solution before. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We also looked at AWS. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-05-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The nice thing about it is its modular design What is most valuable? The plugins are the biggest thing. I like how Visual Studio is designed as a shell application, and then the plugins make it do what you want it to do. What needs improvement? Microsoft could improve Visual Studio by making it easier to find the plugins you need to get your job done. Maybe they could implement an AI search instead of a simple tech search. Sometimes, people come up with a catchy name for something, and you don't know how it's spelled. For example, a developer might come up with a packet wizard and spell weird, like P-A-K-I-T. For how long have I used the solution? I've been working with Microsoft Visual Studio since it first came out in 1997, so about 24 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Visual Studio is very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I don't think scale applies to Visual Studio because it's a developer tool. And I haven't had a lot of experience with massive projects where multiple teams are working on the same source code. I've only worked on a team of a few people. How are customer service and support? I think support is probably pretty decent, but I've never had to use it. I just look at Visual Studio's source code to troubleshoot it. How was the initial setup? The setup is pretty straightforward. Visual Studio runs pretty fast. What other advice do I have? I'd say Visual Studio is a nine out of 10. If you're thinking about adopting Visual Studio, research the kind of functionality you need. The nice thing about Visual Studio Code is that it's a modular design. So if you're working on a strange language that has a different syntax, you can just get a plugin that'll format your code for you based on the language it's in. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-10-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from User-friendly, good performance, has good support, and connects well with PowerBI What is our primary use case? We use this solution for project management and delivery. What is most valuable? It is easy to use. We are able to generate many different types of reports from Azure. It connects well to PowerBI. The performance is good. What needs improvement? They could have more reporting features added to the dashboard. There are certain features, and reporting that can only be used in PowerBI, but not directly in DevOps. We would like to have the same calculated reports that can be accessed in PowerBI, available in Microsoft Azure DevOps. For how long have I used the solution? We have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for the last two and a half years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is a stable product. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is easy to scale. We have approximately 250 employees in our organization who use this solution. How are customer service and technical support? We have contacted technical support. They provided us with a fast resolution. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We are using Azure, and TFS now. We are also planning to migrate to AWS as well. How was the initial setup? The installation was easy. We have an IT team of four to manage and deploy this solution. What other advice do I have? I would definitely recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it. I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-09-07T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Has tight integration to project management, development, repository, deployment How has it helped my organization? All the artifacts are tightly integrated into the repository where you have changed tracking, and you can enforce policies. You can improve the quality of your deliverables. You can actually see the progress you're making towards your goal, and you can even forecast how soon a feature can be completed in the future. So, it's that tight integration of bringing all the parties together right from the project managers to the developers, to the system admin who does the deployment that helps achieve the goal of DevOps. That is, the ease of realization of this DevOps ideal is possible. What is most valuable? Most developers and project managers choose the Microsoft tools to begin with because of familiarity, and these new tools are almost an extension of the tools you're already familiar with. There's a lot of knowledge transfer, which helps, rather than bringing in a new product line. Also, with Azure DevOps there is tight integration to Excel and Office tools so that you can actually even use Excel to do Azure DevOps type tasks. Excel will automatically update the Azure board, your tasks, your company boards, etc. So, there is that condition and familiarity for users. What I like about it mostly is the tools. You don't need a degree to use them. Also, there's not too heavy a reliance on the CLI. What needs improvement? Right now, they tend to have a limit of 1,000 tasks per sprint, and some of their web-based boards, such as the Kanban boards, no longer display tasks. Once you hit over a certain number of task limits, you need to increase those limits. Depending on how big the sprints you're running are, once you hit that 1,000 limit, you now have to start grouping tasks together. It doesn't allow you to track granularly. When you go to the boards and you are rendering the task board, it gets slower to go over that 1,000 limit. If they could improve that to, maybe, 10,000 and still have good performance, that'd be great. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using it for eight years. The version we use right now is the 2020 version, but usually, we try and keep within the last two versions. Depending on the organization, it can be deployed on-premises or as a cloud solution, usually with Microsoft Azure as the cloud provider. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It's very, very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I've used it in organizations with multiple departments using the same installation, and it's scalable. We have about 20 users in multiple departments. How are customer service and technical support? Microsoft support is excellent. Even when you don't have support for some lines, you can call them, and a lot of times, they'll give you what's called a grace case. This means that although you don't have a support contract on a product, they'll help you for free. Normally, when you call and don't have a support agreement, Microsoft will still charge you an hourly rate to give you an engineer to work with you. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Microsoft Azure DevOps just provides better integration than Jenkins does. I've been in this industry for 27 years. The whole ecosystem and the fact that most of the developers are already using Visual Studio make Microsoft Azure DevOps a good option, along with the entire integration from the project management side, to the development side, to the repository side, and to the deployment side. How was the initial setup? Installing Microsoft Azure DevOps is straightforward. You can have everything set up in three or four hours. It's pretty simple. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I've used Jenkins in the past and a group of source repository. I've also used SourceSafe and GitLab. What other advice do I have? To run it, to use the tool the way it's designed, you need someone who understands Scrum or Agile project management. I have used GitLab and other pipeline tools like Jenkins. Azure DevOps combines all of them together, and it beats all of them at everything they do. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this solution at nine and advise others to go for it. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-09-03T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Simple to use, numerous add-ons, and versatile work items, but user management is difficult. What is our primary use case? A common use case of Microsoft Azure DevOps is the use of work items and then connecting them to Git repositories and their updates. It is primarily used for item and code management. What is most valuable? The work items option is incredibly flexible. There are multiple add-ons available. It is easy to use. The entry point is adequate. What needs improvement? When you compare with Jira, there is a lack of progress features. I would like to be able to customize the product using add-ons or a similar mechanism. Scalability is an area where they could advance and make changes. Unfortunately, managing users in Azure is a very complicated issue. We also have a problem with one of their other tools, which is Teams. The Team messaging has caused us some trouble because they have what is called organization, in addition to the users, but it doesn't work very well. Technical support needs improvement. I would like to see scalability, dashboards, KPIs, measurements, and some visual management assistance improved in the next release. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with Microsoft Azure DevOps for one year. We are using the latest version. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is a stable product. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? This solution is used by 20 people in our organization. It appears to be simple, but based on the work items and project management aspects, I believe there are few options for scaling it up in terms of dashboards and KPIs. How are customer service and support? I contacted technical support about managing users in Azure. Unfortunately, they were able to resolve this issue for us. We tried several times and we did not get the answer we expected to get. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I use Jira as well as TFS. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is straightforward. It is simple to install. Other than the initial setup, it does not require any maintenance. What about the implementation team? It was implemented internally. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The majority of the components are reasonably priced. Testing is one of the more expensive components. When you compare it, it is approximately $3 per month for the other components and $45 or $50 for the Testing component. It costs ten times as much as the other components. What other advice do I have? I would recommend this solution to others who may be interested in using it. I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a seven out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-10-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good automation, perfect for agile approaches, and very scalable What is our primary use case? I primarily use the solution for more of an end-to-end pipeline. What is most valuable? The integration with the full end-to-end suite is great. The integration between the Kanban all the way through, including the traceability all the way through to the other end is very useful. You're able to test and you have your repositories and the ability to integrate with pipelines. There are great automation tools. The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. What needs improvement? Individually, the components and not quite as good as others in the market. For example, the DevOps test plan isn't quite as good as a Micro Focus ALM QC. That said, when you integrate it into that entire pipeline, it's better. Microsoft initiates changes so quickly, it's hard to keep up. It would be helpful if there was more documentation and more training to go with all of the changes. Chris: With Microsoft, I would prefer to have more test plans. It's very difficult to find individual test plan module training. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is quite stable. It's pretty reliable. there aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is very scalable. It's easy to expand. How are customer service and technical support? I've had no problems with technical support, however, I'll get put in the fast-track programs. I always get very fast responses. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I also use Micro Focus. For older style waterfall projects, it's best to go with Micro Focus probably, barring pricing and other consideration. However, in an agile environment, a Microsoft Azure-based product such as DevOps is great due to the pipeline and the whole integration end-to-end is just better. I'm also familiar with Jira, which has better features in various areas. The problem is it moves so fast and new versions are always coming out and it can be hard to keep up. What other advice do I have? I'm an implementor. I work with a variety of clients. I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It's great for agile and we've been pretty happy with it as an end-to-end solution. If you're moving into an agile CI/CD, DevOps is the way to go. If you're still thinking about old manual start testing, Micro Focus is probably the way to go. That said, more standalone manual testing is better supported by Micro Focus. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Implementor
Date published: 2021-09-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Gives you the ability to run test cases, but query functions aren't as helpful as other solutions What needs improvement? With the query feature, we have to group items, so it becomes difficult for everyone to understand it. It's easier in JIRA, which has filters and other query options. So, I think this query option should be there in the DevOps also. Also, I don't like the DevOps' boards at all. It's more complicated than JIRA, I think. So, DevOps can improve in terms of its boards, work items, and filters. Then there is also an issue with user access. We have about 10 to 15 users that we can add to DevOps. But only the first five users have basic level access, and the rest have stakeholder access. That means they can change the task status but not add or do anything. I think Microsoft should remove this restriction from DevOps. With the access restrictions, it's tough for us to add any status for our users or filter anything on the boards. So, Microsoft should add this functionality for the other roles as well. What do I think about the stability of the solution? DevOps is a stable solution. How are customer service and support? It's average. It's not better than JIRA. It's average because many things need to be improved by Microsoft in all their products. How was the initial setup? Setting up DevOps is easy. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We pay for DevOps when we use it for our clients. But for personal and internal projects, we can use the free version. But there are restrictions on the trial plan. It should also be available for free use. However, the trial version of DevOps is free for only five basic users. So, I think it should be free for others also. And other extensions like test plan creation should also be available for the basic users, at least. We have to purchase the license for this. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We use both JIRA and DevOps. The main difference between DevOps and JIRA is the test cases. You can have test cases in DevOps but not in JIRA. And, DevOps has advantages in terms of executing those test cases. You can develop releases from DevOps but not from JIRA. At the same time, JIRA's jQuery is the best. I don't like the grouping and filtering in DevOps. What other advice do I have? I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps seven out of 10. I would recommend it to others. It's a nice and helpful tool. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2021-10-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Reliable, easy to setup, and feature-rich but there should be better integration with GitHub What is our primary use case? I work as a DevOps Engineer. I use this solution as an end-user. What is most valuable? I definitely like the pipelines and the ease of management once you're in an enterprise. The controlling security, the ease of access, the free plans, and the developer plans. I also like the licensing structure in general. What needs improvement? I would like there to be more seamless integration with GitHub. Azure DevOps seems to be targeted towards enterprises and GitHub is the ugly sister, so to speak, that you come about in the enterprise. There is no real interaction between the products, which is a real shame since they are both developed by Microsoft. Definitely, there should be more integration between GitHub and Azure DevOps. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with Microsoft Azure DevOps for a couple of years, ever since they changed their name from Visual Studio Team Services. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Microsoft Azure DevOps is definitely stable. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have experience with Azure Bicep and Paraform. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is quite easy. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The licensing structure is good. What other advice do I have? Definitely, I would recommend this solution. I would still look into your team goals and what tools you already know. GitHub is more community-driven, with more modules that are easy to access. Azure DevOps is more integrated with Azure as a platform, and that is important to consider when you consider DevOps in general or Azure DevOps. I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-09-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Provides the best full integration feature on the market; our most important tool What is our primary use case? We're using Azure DevOps Services for three things: First, for project management, second, for storing the source code, similar to GitHub Repository, and finally, we use it as our CICD build server or build environment, which builds for us and runs tests and so on. In general, these are the three main use cases for this product. We are large customers of Microsoft and we're on a corporate level with them. We pay extra for support. I'm a software engineer manager. What is most valuable? I like that this solution is all-in-one, a one-stop-shop, it's the killer feature. I haven't seen anything that comes close. I guess GitHub will be close soon, but that's it, there's really nothing right now for that full integration. Other solutions require three tools so this is really a great feature. The solution has a better user interface and better CICD tools compared to what we used previously when we ran TeamCity. I think it scores higher on most things, including better developer ergonomics. Since it's Git-based, there's no training because everyone uses Git. I've found it to also be very customizable so that on all points it's better. This is an important tool for us. What needs improvement? This solution is not as good as Jira when it comes to project management and I think they know it, but it's good enough. I'm very used to it now, so I can work more quickly, but I've had colleagues who are very Jira-focused and they don't like Azure DevOps at all. When it comes to the handling of tickets or tasks or the product backlog, Jira is much more customizable and more intuitive. It's an area that Microsoft could improve. The instructions could be a little better. We are doing some weird stuff where we're building some things, including embedded firmware. It wasn't super intuitive to set that up which was an issue although it's something minor and we managed to solve it. I just expected it to be a little easier, although it's not what the solution is built for. We're going a little out of the normal use case. It is a little clunky compared to Jira and hosting your own builds could be a little easier. I'm aware that they're putting money into GitHub to add more features around vulnerability scans and statical analysis and so on, basically taking on cloud and what have you, as well as Vericode that we are using. It would be great if it was built into the tool. I get things from other vendors that are provided out of the box, and it would be awesome for me to have that with DevOps. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using this solution for several years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability of the solution is good. We've had a couple of dashboards out and they have a nice page share where they show what's out and what's not. A few months back they had some issues with the Active Directory and we were pretty much locked out of some things. We lost Teams for a while and we use that a lot in Azure DevOps. It was quickly fixed. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the stability. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability of the solution is good and there's no maintenance required. We're a small operation and we could grow by a factor of 10 and it wouldn't be a problem. This is an SaaS and if you need to take care of it, there's something wrong. We use the solution extensively and soon we'll have almost every piece of software, including all our test automation and embedded firmware there so we'll be increasing usage. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? The company previously used TeamCity, and I have used Jenkins in the past, the grandfather of everything. Azure DevOps is nicer. Jenkins is very configurable, but a pain. I like Azure a lot more and I think this or something like it, GitHub Actions, for example, is the future. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is very intuitive. What I think they could work on is the whole permissions model where you have projects and other things which require permissions and which is not very intuitive. You can do almost everything but I want a more granular permissions model that's also easy to maintain. I don't quite like the way it's set up so there's some work to be done there. I think I'd rather do it in text because it's hard to see everything clearly otherwise. If you have a complex permissions system, it's complex to set up and it's not super intuitive. Compared to AWS, which is a very different system, that aspect of Azure is not very intuitive. I work in an engineering department so we didn't feel the need to get any help with deployment. If you read the manual, create the sandbox, and test it out you're able to roll it out. It's not that hard. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We're not paying a lot for this product. As developers, we have a Visual Studio license which is basically free. That's how their licensing model works. Then we have a number of stakeholders who need to do edits in the system, but not work with code necessarily. I believe they're paying $5 a month per user. We also have users who only need to read things and don't need code so I set that up for everyone who needs it. We're probably paying a few hundred dollars per month altogether. That's a minor cost for us; we're not currently hosting anything on cloud, so it's a small cost compared to hosting a solution. We ran into a few things where we had to pay more because of the number of concurrent building agents. We had capped it low and the developer was unhappy so we paid a little more to get what we needed and that's been good. I don't like it when you get a big bill and you don't know about it. What other advice do I have? I'm somewhat critical of the documentation for certain things, but overall, the documentation is really good. In general, Microsoft is really good at documentation. It's worth taking a few hours to read it and then you'll know a little about how Access works. If you set up a sandbox, you're not going to destroy anything and you'll learn by trying things out. I would still read the documentation and go in parallel so you can at least know enough and be aware that it's safe to get in there. We are very heavy users in creating small projects and then sometimes deleting them because they weren't useful but I like that model. Create a little sandbox and go build. We have done our own workflows and they are always tested in a sandbox before going live. That would be my suggestion. I rate the solution eight out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-10-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Customizable, easy to manipulate, and offers a single source of truth What is our primary use case? When I was working at Microsoft, I was one of the core influencers on the feature set and had deployed this solution internally across several organizations. We used it for anything from its CoreALM feature sets to inventory tracking and workflow management and operation support and finance management. There were a bunch of other scenarios. At its core, it is a database with a front end that easily makes it so that you can create new forms and stuff. Then they expose an API, which means you can do a lot of things with it beyond its core use cases. How has it helped my organization? It becomes a single source of truth for whatever operation is implemented within it. You can have your product definition in there from a requirements management standpoint and then log in bugs and defect management and RPNs and a bunch of other things. You have this single source of truth as they provide an analytics service, and then also easily tie into Power BI. It's really easy to just look at the health and overall operation of your entire business from a single source. What is most valuable? The extensibility of the work item forms and customizations as well as the backend API to query the data, et cetera, and manipulate the data programmatically are all very valuable aspects of the product. What needs improvement? The UI, the user experience, is challenging for newcomers. Once you get it, you get it, and it's not too bad. However, it takes some effort to learn how to work with the system. There's a moderate learning curve. I've used both Jira and Azure DevOps, and I would have that same feedback for both tools. The biggest challenge has been that both Azure DevOps and Jira tend to pivot more towards software development and the industry is going more towards full end-to-end product development - hardware and software. These platforms could do a lot more to help support the mechanical, electrical, controls, robotics, and more of the hardware side of things. For how long have I used the solution? I started using the solution in 2010. It's been about 12 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I haven't had a problem with stability. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? When you surpass a terabyte of data from a work item standpoint, certainly there are some limitations in performance as the running is querying that large data set in the backend. I've done multiple different deployments. Sometimes, the smaller, smaller deployments have been a handful of five people, and it might be three software devs, a test engineer, a hardware engineer, and a PM. I've also done larger deployments where it's 8,300 people. That was a mix of hardware, software, PMs, firmware engineers, front-end, full-stack devs, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, et cetera. In the deployment that was 8,300, it's actually still deployed there and growing. Another deployment I was a part of that was a medium deployment - 20 users - has since reduced more due to politics and going back to the front-end, ease of use. There are some folks that it was too high of friction to use it. You can scale it up or down to match your needs. How are customer service and support? I don't deal with technical support in the traditional sense. I know the developers who've developed it, so I just go talk to them. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I've also used Jira. I previously used SharePoint and Microsoft decided the direction of SharePoint to be less workflow-oriented and less list-oriented and more as a document store. As their roadmap moved away from work management, I've moved over into the TFS/Azure DevOps world. I was a Microsoft employee. There was some natural tendency to just go with the Microsoft tool, however, it wasn't a hard, fast requirement when we just looked at the feature sets and stuff. How was the initial setup? I've been a developer on the backend. In terms of setting up the product, my answer would be highly complex. If I were just doing it for a core user, set of users, then I would say the setup was relatively frictionless. I would say the one point of ambiguity is for some newcomers if they don't understand the difference between CMMI templates versus Agile, versus Scrum, they'll find it complex. I've seen a lot of new users create dummy projects to then go in and see how each of those is configured from a template standpoint. Work could be done there to just reduce that level of friction. In terms of deployment times, I've been on multiple different sides of levels of deployment. From the simple side, I've seen deployments take as little as a couple of minutes. If it's teams of five, for example, they go into the web app, they start up a new project, and boom they're in. They get all the requirements and user stories and all that stuff done. I've also been on the other side where it's been nine months with 22 people working full-time to configure and deploy this system across thousands and thousands of users. It just depends on the size. What was our ROI? It's hard to put a number on managing the plan of record. I haven't tried to calculate an ROI. It does what it's supposed to and it's more accessible than an Excel sheet. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The solution costs $5 or $10 per user, per month. It's a nominal fee. I would actually prefer it in that they give you the first five users for free. That little bit of free users goes a long way, just from an initial trial and adoption standpoint. I would encourage them to keep doing things like that. If you use the other services - if you use their build and compute engines and stuff like that, they charge some amount for computing and some of their extensions. These are not necessarily Microsoft's extensions. They are third-party ones and they'll charge. Depending on if the feature is core to the product, or it's an extension, it might or might not cost you something extra. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I've evaluated pretty much every ALM. What other advice do I have? We're just a customer and an end-user. I've used all the versions, starting back with Server 2005. Now I'm just using their online version. In terms of advice I'd give to new users, I'd say it goes back to basic change management. Understand who your attractors and detractors are. Lay out the feature sets, ease of use, and things like that. That at least will help detractors become a neutral party as there are always going to be people that create friction within a deployment. Just have an effective change management plan. I've looked at over 12 different ALMs and they all have their pros and cons. It really just comes down to just picking one and going forward with it and learning it. I would rate the product at an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Microsoft Azure Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00-05:00

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